So far I have only powered up Mewtwo and Metacross.
Not a big fan of glass cannons, since I don’t dodge in raid battles. So I’m not sure which too power up and which are not worth the investment
Also any shadow recommendations for Groudon and kyogre? Right now can’t decide between gyarados or swampert.
If you don’t want to dodge, gyarados is better due to flying subtyping. And for shadows in general: depends on what you have and what you want to raid. In principle, those with double resistances vs the most common raid moves is fine. Example given shadow magnezone for fliers, shadow Gardevoir for fighters (also useful for dragons so…)
Shadow machamp is a good investment as well, i have two now, shadow ttar is also good, but the meta might come. Shadow weavile is also good.
Venusaur, Charizard, Machamp, Pinsir, Dragonite, Scizor, Houndoom, Tyranitar, Swampert, Gardevoir, Salamence, Metagross, Torterra, Weavile, Magnezone, all fantastic shadow options. Shadow Electivire is also good but a little too frail if you don’t dodge. Shadow Gyarados is weaker I think, due to the lack of a powerful moveset (the multi-bar Aqua Tail is preferred over Hydro Pump). Generally I don’t consider shadow legendaries.
I prefer hydro pump on gyarados (which is also about 5 percent better in the groudon sims, which also calculates fainting before firing off) cause you use it vs groudon or similar where you usually don’t have a problem of fainting too soon. Aqua tail also needs a ETM, that’s not worth it.
I think the above has answered most of it, but I recommend shadow magnezone for kyogre. The shadow magnemite rocket is pretty common and it’s got a good range of resistances to help mitigate the defensive shadow drop.
Of course not worth an ETM, I meant just use what already have, since the CD move was available last month. Personally I won’t choose single-bar moves if the mon has another not much weaker multi-bar move of the same type (Rock Blast over Stone Edge, Aerial Ace over Hurricane, for instance).
Of course you can choose what you want. In your examples, stone edge and hydro pump are stronger under most circumstances (except on very frail or not resisting pokemon). Hurricane itself is not a good single bar move, a better example would be brave bird. We had this discussion I think, I just want to prevent people from using weak three bar moves when it is more a personal preference of yours. Actually I like it when people have personal preferences, so go ahead! I also like my yanmega with aerial ace as flying attacker :)
The reason I said Hurricane instead of Brave Bird is exactly due to the latter one being very powerful. If Brave Bird is available (such as on Mega Pidgeot), I won’t choose Aerial Ace either. As for Yanmega, I only use it as a bug attacker, mostly for low tier raids and gyms.
Your list left out several Shadow which are good for PvP (Abomamass, Victreebell, Snorlax,Skarmory) … was that intentional? I think your list focuses on PvE shadow priorities. not PvP. For PvE I would also add Shadow Scyther.
possibly aerodactyl also is viable though it may be frail for the op
I actually ended up going with and powering up Magnezone for Kyogre and Swampert for Groudon. Was leaning towards Gyrados but decided Swampert because I can also use it as a powerful Ground attacker and it has a cheap 2nd move cost.
Probably will power up shadow gyarados next time I want to add a new powerful water Pokémon to my arsenal unless there is a new better shadow Pokémon released by then.
Good decision in general, swampert is more versatile than gyarados and both shadow magnezone and swampert are good for pvp as well. Just expect that magnezone goes down FAST vs surf kyogre (I was surprised how fast a normal one goes down!) and similarly swampert vs groudon… (Survival rate about 60 percent of that of gyarados).
Swampert is very easy to dodge with, not a big problem even against Solar Beam.
With water gun or mud shot or both? What do you normally run in pve
Mostly Water Gun, slightly better when both are super effective.
PvP S-Gyrados and Swampert have similiar uses but they both cover different meta. Gyrados with Dragon Breath and Outrage can cover Dragons where Swampert can take Steel and Rock better.
In PvE id Purify them to be ready for their inevitable Megas.
But your preference is down to whether u want to wait for the next Shadow event to remove Frustration or invest in 2 move to stick with Frustration for a while as a second move.
Several Megas may make you want to purify your invested Shadows. But thats if you care to work for Mega candies.
S-Machamp is a fantastic investment. Monster in PvE and PvP.
For megas, there is no need to purify the shadows, just use regular ones. Also things like Salamence have completely different use as shadow and mega, one glass cannon and one tank.
I’d never seen the big attraction in using a purified mon for a mega. I know there’s a bit of a candy discount, but for me, particularly for anything with regular candy, the half dust cost for luckies is far more attractive. Of course, a lucky purified is ideal, which is exactly what I have waiting for mega tyranitar.
But purified mon need special trades, much harder to get lucky than regular mon. Also the pale halo on purified mon makes me feel I have cataracts.
I was thinking to specifically target one for a lucky friend trade, rather than mass (well, 1 per day for however long it takes) trading purified mons to try for a lucky. Added bonus, the lucky background completely takes over the “halo” so you can’t see it.
